Nintendo Switch Lite Left Joystick Replacement
crwdns2944107:0crwdnd2944107:0Craig Lloydcrwdnd2944107:0crwdnd2944107:0crwdnd2944107:07crwdnd2944107:0crwdne2944107:0
crwdns2944111:0April 3, 2025crwdne2944111:0
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crwdns2942287:0crwdne2942287:0Follow this guide to replace the left joystick in your Nintendo Switch Lite. Replacing the joystick will fix the notorious “Joy-Con drift” issue. (Follow this guide to replace the right joystick in your Nintendo Switch Lite).
The Switch Lite uses JIS screws, but you can use a Phillips screwdriver in a pinch. Be very careful not to strip the screws. iFixit's Phillips bits are designed to be cross-compatible with JIS-style screws.
Note: This procedure requires disconnecting the battery for safety. In order to do this, the shield plate must be removed. The shield plate is bonded to the heat sink with thermal paste, which will need to be cleaned off and reapplied before reinstalling the shield plate.
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crwdns2935267:0crwdne2935267:0Magnetic Project Mat$19.95
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Use a Y00 screwdriver to remove the four 6.3 mm-long screws securing the back panel.
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Use a JIS 000 driver or an official iFixit PH 000 driver to remove the following screws securing the back panel:
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Two 3.6 mm-long screws on the top of the device
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Two 3.6 mm-long screws on the bottom of the device
I accidentally stripped the back screw and now I can't open it. I removed all the other screws. What should I do?
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Insert an opening tool into the left speaker grille on the bottom of the device.
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Twist the opening tool to release the clips securing the back panel.
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Slide the opening tool around the bottom-left corner to release the clips on the left side of the device.
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Insert an opening tool into the right speaker grille on the bottom of the device.
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Twist the opening tool to release the clips.
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Slide and pry the opening tool around the bottom-right corner to release the clips on the right side of the device.
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Continue sliding and prying the opening tool along the gap on the top of the device to release the clips.
The headphone jack prevents you from completely freeing or lifting the back panel straight up. Unclip your way around the back cover, then lift from the side with the US port and slide it off the heaphone jack.
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Lift the bottom edge of the back panel, opening it like a book.
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Remove the back panel.
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Use a JIS 000 driver or an official iFixit PH 000 driver to remove the following four screws:
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Three 3.1 mm screws
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One 4.5 mm screw
There are four screws instead of three mentioned
it doesnt mention 3 anywhere, and it labels all four
With how easy it seems to be to do serious damage with the next few steps, I figured I'd say that realistically you can skip steps 9-13 when doing this repair. While they provide a bit of extra security by disconnecting the battery, the left stick is completely accessible and replaceable without touching the heat shield or anything underneath (And steps 17 and 18 disconnect power from the daughter board regardless).
i stripped a &&^&^$^ screw
Well I actually removed the screw right next to the 4.5 screw. I did not realize it till my son showed me why the plate wouldn't release. Ha ha, it's funny now but yeah not a big deal. I could have bent it badly assuming I took all screws out though. For anyone reading this before going in. 👍
the one in the middle rounded out .-.
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Use a spudger or your fingers to lift the shield plate up and out of the device.
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Remove the shield plate.
You may need to replace the thermal paste on the heat sink.
What type of Thermal Paste would you guys recommend? I clicked on the picture but nothing.
Personnaly i use some Mx-6 from Artic, really good quality/price, never have to complain.
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Use an opening tool or your fingernail to flip up the small, hinged locking flap on the motherboard interconnect cable's ZIF connector.
The clip broke off when trying to remove this cable. Audio only works through headphones and the display now won’t turn on after the clip broke. Does anyone know where I could get a clip or how I could fix it without it?
Mi è successa la stessa cosa è non so come ripararla! Chissà se c’è un modo!
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Use a pair of tweezers to slide the interconnect cable out of its connector on the motherboard.
I turned the unit off beforehand, I used tweezers just like the instructions said (ifixit branded) , my device sparked and now it won’t turn back on
The flap came off is it important or is there a way t fix it?
We're you able to get it working without the white flap? My screen is not working after putting it back together and i noticed this white flap was falling off
Did you get it working without the white flap? Everything on the switch works fine except for audio going through headphones and the display not turning on.
do not use metal sharp pointed tweezers! you will rip your ribbon cable. Use the inside of a Bic type pen or something else dull and plastic to pull the cable away by putting the pen part where the first bend is.
Anyone figure out how to fix this? my device shorted in this step.
Maybe tape the Tweezers or smear some hot glue on them to insulate them to save you time and money.
Maybe put all the Warnings at the start of the guide as well. We fix it geeks tend to get excited when fixing things 😁
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Use the point of a spudger to pry the battery connector straight up and out of its socket on the motherboard.
Caution the connector may not be properly soldered onto the motherboard. For me it snapped off the pins and now have to find a place to get that fixed if even possible. may have bricked it.
Yup, broke the connector right off the motherboard. Thanks, ifixit -_-
I backed out when I reached this point. I couldn't risk damaging it. Do u just need to pull it up? Did you mean that it might have been soldered shut below?
You should just need to pull straight up, but make sure you’re pulling on the wires or the gray plug—do not pull on the black socket or it can snap off of the motherboard.
I pulled straight up from the south side on under 2 or three wires and held down the device as I pulled and the gray connector disconnected from the black connector on the Switch. Just be careful at this part.
With how easy it seems to be to do serious damage at this point, I figured I'd say that realistically you can skip steps 9-13 when doing this repair. While they provide a bit of extra security by disconnecting the battery, the left stick is completely accessible and replaceable without touching the heat shield or anything underneath (And steps 17 and 18 disconnect power from the daughter board regardless).
just broke my connector... ifixit PLEASE put a warning on how fragile the solder on this connector is.
Note for this step, you do not need to apply a lot of force. I used two tools here: small screwdriver to hold down the black base, and one side of fine-tipped tweezers to get under all 3 wires. Gently, push down on the tweezers to push the wires upwards, which should force the gray connector up and off the base. It did not take a lot of force. Take your time and it will be fine. Again, like others have said, do NOT pull or pry up the black base.
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crwdns2935267:0crwdne2935267:0Tweezers$4.99
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Use a pair of tweezers or your fingers to pull the left speaker cable straight up and out of its socket on the daughterboard.
pulled from the connector, not the wires, and ended up ripping them off the connector anyways since it encountered tension from the other end (the gray chamber on the left)
consider doing step 15 before pulling the wire, just in case.
Why even disconnect this cable. Not worth the risk leave it connected to daughter board.
while doing this I ripped the pad on the circuit board off. Should i risk trying to repair it or should i just try to go without the speaker???
I also accidentally ripped off the connector, disabling the left speaker. However, that will not break any functionality of the switch. The right speaker works just fine on its own (just remember to turn the audio to mono in system settings) and I was successfully able to replace the joystick. Although the audio quality is a little bit depleted, you barely notice it if you turn up the volume a little, and I think being able to actually MOVE FORWARD in my games is a better plus than having louder, stereo, audio.
Went to pull the speaker connector and it pulled right off the motherboard. Would not come loose.
I'm gonna echo what others said here and suggest that you skip this step. After you complete Step 15, you can just move the speakers enough with your fingers to complete Step 26, which involves a screw half underneath it.
Regarding the ribbon cable in Step 17 & Step 18, you can honestly use your fingers if they're small enough. The ribbon cable is wide enough for you to press down on it a little and slide it out bit by bit.
Overall, this makes the disassembly and eventual reassembly process easier and lets you avoid running the risk of damaging or completely tearing out the wires, like I almost did.I too tore the connector off the board. I didn't read the comments first :(. Take the advise and leave the connection
Removing the screw from 37 is enough to give you space to remove the board, I honestly think you shouldn't try to remove this connector.
Unfortunately, I had to reinstall multiple daughterboards on the same Switch Lite. I strongly recommend orienting your straight tweezers with ridges (like the ones in the picture) perpendicular to the device. Grab the plastic connector with the tip of the tweezers from the top. It makes inserting and removing this connection significantly easier.
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Use a JIS 000 driver or an official iFixit PH 000 driver to remove the 4.5 mm screw securing the left speaker module.
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Use your fingers to lift the speaker module up and out of its recess to remove it.
Pulling the lower screw on the speaker assembly gave me a little more wiggle room to get it out without damaging the flat cable.
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Use an opening tool or your fingernail to flip up the small, hinged locking flap on the motherboard interconnect cable's ZIF connector.
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Use a pair of tweezers to slide the motherboard interconnect cable out of its connector on the daughterboard.
Reconnecting this part was touchy. After initial reassembly, the Switch did not power on. Even though this looked like it was correctly connected, pulling it out and reconnecting it solved the problem.
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Use an opening tool or your fingernail to flip up the small, hinged locking flaps on the two ribbon cable ZIF connectors.
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Use a pair of tweezers to slide the daughterboard screen cable out of its connector on the motherboard.
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Repeat this procedure for the volume buttons cable.
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Use a pair of tweezers or your fingers to remove the volume buttons.
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Use an opening tool or your fingernail to flip up the small, hinged locking flap on the left joystick cable's ZIF connector.
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Use a pair of tweezers to slide the left joystick cable out of its connector on the daughterboard.
The connector for my left joystick broke. Is there a way to fix it?
How badly did it broke?
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Use a JIS 000 driver or an official iFixit PH 000 driver to remove the two 4.5 mm screws securing the left trigger button assembly.
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Remove the left trigger button assembly.
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Use a JIS 000 driver or an official iFixit PH 000 driver to remove the following four screws:
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Two 4.5 mm screws
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Two 6 mm screws
The two 4.5 mm screws were very difficult to remove here and ended up getting stripped. I CANNOT remove them, help!
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Use your fingers to lift the daughterboard up and out of its recess to remove it.
Stop here if repairing Switch Lite for joycon drift. After removing daughter card you can see the bottom of the joystick. This thin metal actually bends during use causing bad connection of joystick. If you cut out a business card the same size as the joycon and put it on the bottom of the joystick it gives the metal enough backing to fix the issue. I used two layers with just a small bit of glue stick to adhere it. Put it all back together and you will find your issue is fixed.
That's great, but it's only Temporary.
You may as well put a New Stick in (preferably Hall Effect) after going through Hell to open the darn thing.
If you do choose the cardboard route, you may as well clean the innards of the Joystick, BUUUT, it's not easy getting the Joystick back together.
Daughterboard. That's a new one for me.
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Use a JIS 000 driver or an official iFixit PH 000 driver to remove the two 3.5 mm screws securing the left joystick.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the joystick up and out of its recess.
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Use your fingers to remove the joystick.
During reassembly when putting the screws back in, slowly turn them CCW until you feel it drop into its thread. You will never crossthread them by doing this.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.
Repair didn’t go as planned? Try some basic troubleshooting, or ask our Nintendo Switch Lite Answers community for help.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.
Repair didn’t go as planned? Try some basic troubleshooting, or ask our Nintendo Switch Lite Answers community for help.
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Really appreciate the detailed pictures.
Great guide! Circling the screws really helped as went backwards for the reassembly. Not a bad repair just very delicate components. Best of all no adhesive removal required!
This was great, I love how every step was so simply broken down and had pictures. Thank you, my son is very happy to have his switch back in action.
I followed this guide, bought the tools and replacement part, after successfully doing the replacement, my switch light now won’t power on at all, how can I fix this? any help please…
Hi Iczleal I had the same issue when I first did it and then I went back step by step. Turns out I didn’t plug the battery back in correctly, I recommend just repeating the steps and checking to see if everything is connected properly. Hope this helps :)
Thank you to both. Had the same problem and you helped me solve it.
It is not called a daughter board it is called a mother board
It’s called a daughter board because it is not the main device board and it can only work if it is connected to the main (mother) board, thus making it the daughter board. For the normal joy-cons, those boards are considered motherboards because those are separate from the Switches mother board and can operate with their own battery pack. Hope this makes sense :D
Appreciate the detail. Now it's fixed and my character doesn't wander off anymore.
That was easy to follow. The procedure went really smoothly! Thanks for the guide! <3
Is it mandatory to replace the thermal paste or can I just place the heat shield back without any consequence?
Thanks for this guide! The thumbstick on my son's Switch Lite stopped moving up and down. I already had the iFixit tools so I bought the part and followed the iFixit guide and repaired almost like new.
Glad I had some thermal paste on hand from a previous laptop repair.
Hi- I did this step for step and now my screen doesn’t work. It turns on and I can hear it clicks when I press buttons but the screen is black. Any ideas?
This guide is magic! Battery connector does need a bit of a push to re-fit though. Thanks from my daughter and me.
Just so you don't loose it, I'd recommend removing the left shoulder button as well at step 25.
It is kind of hard to put back in because of the spring but it really likes to fall out on its own.
Hi! I attempted this repair years ago when I was less careful, and ended up awfully stripping the left 4.5mm screw on the daughterboard in step 26, making it impossible to access the stick. Since then the drifting has gotten to the point to where the console is unusable and I want to attempt this repair again. Does anyone have any tips as to how I could get that screw out? I'm not really concerned with salvaging the screw at this point, just the console.
Put a rubber band in between the screw and screwdriver, then firmly, but slowly, unscrew it. Otherwise, if you don't mind ruining your bit, put a tiny bit of super glue on the screw, press your screwdriver on the screw, then wait until it's dry and slowly turn. Hope that helps! And good luck :)
We replaced both joysticks on my son's Switch Lite, but it will not turn back on now. I went back step by step to confirm everything was connected correctly & put it on the charger, but it will not power on at all. Any suggestions on what I can do?
Before i found ifixit's repair guide I already got a repair kit featuring a a Philips 2.0 x 40mm should this be sufficient for the repair and if not how does it differ from the the Philips drivers you suggest
Be weary of this process; some of the screws were impossible to remove which caused some damage. I would say invest in going to Geek Squad or having it professionally repaired before you take your entire switch apart!
Did the replacement but now my switch makes noise and is responsive, but the screen is completely blank. How can I fix this? Any help much appreciated
What would happen if I don’t remove the batterie and the screen? I see to access those you need to remove the back plate heatsink and I will need tk replace the thermal paste but I dknt have that. And I also see that j can acces everything I need tk replace the joystick without removing the backplate. Will there be any risks if I dknt?
I've watched some videos on this and you can definitely leave the backplate in place if you're just replacing the left joycon
Amazing detailed guide. Reall helpful that there are lots of pictures in the guide. Made the repair of my switch really easy.
super easy repair, did both sticks while working (I work from home) took about 3 hours to do both sides.
The new joystick works based on the sound but similar to some of the other reviews the screen no longer illuminates. I tried several times removing and replacing the screen cable multiple times to no avail. Was anyone able to overcome this or at least have any fresh ideas to try?
I followed this guide step by step and the replacement went perfectly. The detailed pictures and guide were great and very helpful. Thank you iFixit!
This guide is very clear and made the whole process a lot simpler.
Thank you for the detailed explanations!
Merci beaucoup pour ce tutoriel. Cela m'a permis de changer les deux sticks sur la Switch Lite de mon fils. En prenant son temps et en triant par ordre chronologique chaque vis et pièce, c'est presque facile. Merci encore pour tous ces détails, ces conseils au fur et à mesure, le tuto est parfait.
Went through the process of replacing both joysticks and now the Switch Lite won't power on. I even tried leaving it plugged in to the charger overnight. I opened it back up to check all of the ribbon cable connections and everything looks snug. The only thing I can think, is that the unit had been sitting for a couple weeks before I did the repair. Could the battery be toast now?
Thanks just did this to fix a family members switch. It went flawlessly!
Done it but there is now no backlight and my switch lite just wont go back to normal. I went over everything from this guide only thing is I didnt replace thermal paste. Also the white locking flap to disconnect the battery (step 11) may have come off. Im still genuinely confused about what is the problem.
I did it! These instructions are easy follow. My switch lite battery was completely dead, so now I wait and hopefully everything is right...and it powers on.
Final step, recalibrate joystick.
This was a fantastic guide, but I'm still having an issue. Replaced a left stick that had a limited range of up/down motion. The new stick worked great at first but within a few hours became even worse than the original stick. Could there be another issue at play here?
Similar to others here, i replaced the left joystick and now the screen wont turn on?
Very well documented - clear photos with screw location/length annotation made this repair a snap. Thanks!
Running into an interesting situation after replacement - my switch recognizes the new left joystick and is receiving inputs when I push down on it (getting the click sound from the system) but not registering any up-down-left-right movement. Can't access joystick calibration in settings. Is it possible I damaged the joystick cables when inserting them, therefore limiting functionality? Might just have to try again with a new part, whoops.
Followed all instructions, but device won't turn on.
No indicator on screen from charging either.
After reading comments here, i checked and battery wasn't plugged in correctly. But unsure what else to check.
Is there an easy way to confirm that i've bricked it? (Perhaps accidentally shorting it from having a partially plugged in battery?)
I bought this repair kit and went through the steps. I think I broke off the locking hinge on the first cable to be removed in this tutorial. Could this be why my switch is not powering on? Is it possible to replace the hinge or is my switch now a brick?
Great guide, replaced both joysticks at the same time without too much trouble, took an hour or so though. I labelled a paper towel with little drawn squares to keep all the screws organized. The smaller power/data ribbons are quite fragile, so you have to be pretty careful, steady hands etc if you want the repair to succeed.
I think it would be good to remind newbies like me that you have to recalibrate the jostiks after replacing them. I was scared when I saw that my new jostiks were drifting.
All my screws got stripped any ideas on how to remove?
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A Y0 screwdriver seemed to work better for me.
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What type of screw driver do I use to un screw the screws and which way
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Y 0.6 was all I had but it seemed to fit perfectly
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Like really snug? I've gotten away with using Drivers either bigger or smaller but I hate doing it. But if 0.6 is the exact size I need, then I'll get that. I don't wanna strip my client's Switch Lite's screws.
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